Somnath Temple: The First Among the Jyotirlingas

The legend behind the temple

Somnath's founding legend centers on Soma, the moon god, and a curse. According to the Puranas, Soma married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha but favored one wife, Rohini, above the rest. The neglected wives complained to their father, and Daksha cursed Soma to lose his luster entirely. Soma performed intense penance to Shiva at this location, and Shiva, moved by his devotion, freed him from the curse, restoring his light in waxing and waning cycles rather than permanently.

Grateful, Soma is said to have built a temple to Shiva at this spot, made of gold, which gives the temple its name: Somnath, “Lord of Soma” (the moon). This origin story is part of why the temple carries such strong associations with cycles, restoration, and renewal, themes that would go on to define its actual physical history in a way the ancient legend seems almost to have foreshadowed.

A history of destruction and rebuilding

Somnath's real, documented history is where the temple's story becomes genuinely remarkable. Located on the coast of Gujarat, the temple's wealth and prominence made it a repeated target over centuries. Historical accounts describe the temple being destroyed and looted multiple times, most notably during Mahmud of Ghazni's invasion in 1026 CE, and rebuilt again afterward, only to face destruction again in subsequent centuries.

This cycle repeated numerous times across roughly a thousand years, invasion, destruction, and reconstruction, until the current structure was rebuilt in the mid-20th century, championed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Deputy Prime Minister, as part of a broader post-independence effort to restore the site. The temple was completed and consecrated in 1951.

Many devotees and historians alike note the resonance between this repeated cycle of destruction and rebuilding and Shiva's own core symbolism, a temple to the god of destruction and renewal, itself repeatedly destroyed and renewed, standing today as much as a monument to resilience as to devotion.

The temple today

The current Somnath temple is built in the Chalukya style of architecture, positioned directly on the Arabian Sea coast in Veraval, Gujarat. Its location is notable for another reason: tradition holds that there is no land between Somnath and Antarctica along that specific line of longitude across the ocean, a detail often mentioned by guides and pilgrims as evidence of the site's unique geographic and spiritual positioning.

The temple complex includes the main shrine, a museum documenting the site's turbulent history, and a sound and light show held in the evenings that narrates the temple's story across its many reconstructions.

Planning a visit

When to go: Somnath can be visited year-round, though the cooler months (October through March) are generally more comfortable for travel in Gujarat's coastal climate.

How to reach it: The nearest airport is in Diu, with Rajkot as a larger alternative further away. Veraval, the nearest railway station, connects to major Indian cities, and the temple itself is a short drive from there.

What to expect: Somnath is a well-organized, heavily visited pilgrimage site with good infrastructure for pilgrims, unlike some of the more physically demanding Jyotirlingas such as Kedarnath. Most visitors combine a Somnath visit with a stop at nearby Dwarka, another major pilgrimage site associated with Krishna, and Nageshwar, another of the twelve Jyotirlingas located close by.

Why Somnath matters beyond being “first”

Its position as first among the twelve Jyotirlingas is a matter of traditional listing, various texts order the twelve slightly differently. What makes Somnath genuinely significant isn't the ranking itself, but what the temple has come to represent: proof, written into stone and rebuilt again and again across a thousand years, that what gets destroyed doesn't have to stay destroyed. For a temple dedicated to Shiva specifically, it's difficult to imagine a more fitting history.